Psychoblog

Dear all,

We would like to invite you to the next ANaP lab colloquium by Kerstin Fröber (University of Regensburg) on Tuesday (May 23rd) at 17:00. Please find the title, abstract, and information about the venue below.

We are looking forward to seeing you at our colloquium. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Kind regards,

Yasaman Rafiee

Title: On the (In-)Dependence of cognitive stability and flexibility: Evidence from voluntary task switching research

Abstract: Cognitive flexibility and stability are usually thought of as two antagonistic control demands: Flexibility allegedly comes at the cost of increased distractibility and reduced stability whereas stability comes at the cost of increased rigidity and reduced flexibility. In this talk, I will present several voluntary task switching experiments that call a rigorous antagonism into question. I’m going to demonstrate that stability and flexibility can be associated with different underlying mechanisms and affect different levels of action control, which results in some independence beyond a simple stability-flexibility dichotomy. Taken together, cognitive stability is not necessarily associated with reduced flexibility. Instead, cognitive stability and flexibility are part of a more complex and dynamic system to enable adaptive goal-directed action on a volatile environment.

Venue: GEMI, Seminar room 1.134